One of the biggest holidays in Korea is the Lunar New Year (Seollal) in which Koreans go back to their hometowns and spend time with their families. Therefore, this foreigner took a chance to visit Busan, which is the second biggest city in Korea during the four-days holiday (sunday included). Being a port city, Busan allowed me to be near the sea once again even though apparently not all Koreans seem to be particularly fascinated by the city and its easily-impregnated smell of fish and sea food. Busan tends to be peculiarly busy during Summer, so I decided to visit the city during Seollal as well.
I went to the Jagalchi Fish Market three days in a row. Unfortunately they were closed since it was a national holiday and I just kept trying and coming back every single day. Even though the market is impressive, seeing "aunties" selling the fresh sea catch outside the market is probably more interesting at the eyes of a tourist like me. The Market is famous for the freshness and the reasonable prices of the catch itself and for the hilarious aunties trying to sell the fish. There are a few "restaurants" right next to the fish market where visitors can have grilled fish, eel, sashimi, whale, shark and probably those little (but not so little) alive octopus that some Koreans like to have... alive (Not me !).
And yes, I got the chance to get some sashimi because fish (and sea food) could not get fresher than that. It's particularly well-known that in Europe it has become cool to have sushi (even if sushi means a piece of cucumber rolled up in rice...), but some of these sea-food-sashimis were INDEED a challenge for me. But I'll have to admit, a very good experience though !
Visiting Seo-gu included (a long walk to) the Songdo Beach as well as the Songdo coastal walk. The beach is a popular escape during summer, after opening in 1913 as Korea’s first official beach and gaining particular popularity in the 1960s for its graceful coastlines. In the 80's nonetheless, the facilities at Songdo Beach gradually deteriorated with the continuous loss of sand from the beach due to acceleration of seafront development and repeated damage from typhoons. The beach underwent remodeling through the execution of a consolidation project for the seashore of Songdo (the first one in Korea), over a 5-year period starting in 2000. Apparently in the years to come, the Seo-gu district office will successively drive a complex marine resort formulation project already considered to be a "potential world-famous 4-season marine tourist attraction in the near future". There might be some exaggeration in this (I actually lol'd to be honest), but Korea surely has been known for its recently continuous accelerated growth and this might be no exception at all.
While desperately searching for a place to eat exploring the area, I also had the chance to find a Buddhist temple that undoubtedly deserved being included in here. The temple's name is Daebeob-sa.
Another attraction is obviously the Busan Tower and the small gardens surrounding it. The tower, considerably less impressive than the ones in Seoul and Daegu, allows nonetheless a clear and magnificent vision (that can be seen below) of the city and its many contrasts.
The impressive Bosu-dong Book Street opened there in late 1950 by a refugee Korean couple selling old American magazines discarded by soldiers. Back then, some people would sell their books when money was needed while others would cheaply buy secondhand books in the market. Especially, at the beginning of semester, the street would be crowded with students looking for good opportunities. Piles upon piles of books up to the ceiling and book series brutally tied up and ready to be sold, defining the narrowest corridor inside the book stores, can nowadays be found in the book market. Messy, chaotic, claustrophobic, the market remains these days, after 64 years, an attraction for tourists and dedicated book lovers.
Sem comentários:
Enviar um comentário